So...Pretty...

Geek Monkey's not due for a face-lift for another few days, but that didn't stop me from going ahead and overhauling Celluloid Moon.  The link on GM now directs to the Wordpress version (I'm slowly becoming convinced that as flexible as the Blogger version is, I like the overall look of Wordpress better), and I made some changes to the theme.  Behold , in all its red glory:

I'm also slowly adding a Review Archive where you can sort and find all the reviews alphabetically.  Haven't yet decided if I'm going to import the Geek Monkey reviews over; chances are I won't but you never know.

I just posted a small article about movies holding up over time, based on my watching of THE BIG LEBOWSKI over the weekend.  There's also a recent review of the "lost" Dario Argento giallo, FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET.  Drop by and leave a comment, if you're into that sort of thing...

Random Wrap-Up

 

Made it back safe and sound from my couple of days visiting the Jaguar/Land Rover headquarters in Mahwah, NJ where I had the pleasure to test drive some of the 2010 vehicles I will never have the scratch to afford.  I'm not much of a car guy, proudly driving a 2003 Honda Accord that manages to get me and the family to where we have to go with a minimum of fuss, but taking the new Jaguar XF up to 110 in the blink of an eye with the radio blaring and your head pushed back laughing is definitely a nice feeling.

Home life over the weekend was a wonderful family affair, meaning it was just me, the Missus and the boy.  Lots of yard work, lots of plyaing outside, and lots of movies and books and snuggling in the evenings.  While in NJ I read all of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (minus the first 70 pages) in one marathon session, so Saturday and Sunday was book wind-down time, sitting outside with a Hop Hound Amber Wheat reading The Man With the Getaway Face by Richard Stark, also devoured (with the beer) in one sitting. 

Both are things I can't recommend enough:  put aside your disdain for the "regular" Michelob beers and check out their incredible micro brews.  There's a Spring Sampler pack you can find if you go to their website and put in your zip code - you get a couple other fine beers to boot, but the Hop Hound is the king of the bunch.  And Richard Stark's "Parker" novels are the essence of hard boiled crime capers - rough and unforgiving nuggets of great genre writing.

After a lukewarm welcome back, the Boy has been a blast to be around - he's starting to ask for "Daddy" a lot more than he used to, and even though Mom is still the go-to gal when it comes to being tired, hungry, or cranky, it's nice to hear him pull away shouting "I want Daddy!  Watch Batman?" or some other variation on the theme.  We started out watching both JUSTICE LEAGUE (where he would ask for "Hot Girl" whenever Hawk Girl is gone from the screen) and the original BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES that came out soon after the Tim Burton film, but owing to the surprisingly mature stuff going on have settled on the new BRAVE AND THE BOLD on Cartoon Network.  He still gets his Batman fix, but the animation and action is much more kid-friendly.

The Missus has been (not surprisingly) exhausted taking kid duties all week, thus showing that even the miniscule amount I do has its impact.  Sunday a massive headache crashed-landed early in the morning while we were out buying flowers to plant, so on the way home I stopped off at the local deli and picked up some Häagen Dazs ice cream bars to soothe her.  We played some Wii Sports, watched the director's cut of PAYBACK (really good if pretty bleak, and I kinda missed the blue tint they gave the film in the theatrical release) and I happily introduced her to the wonders of THE BIG LEBOWSKI. 

Damn that film holds up well.  I think I like it more now than I did when it came out.  One thing I forgot about was how funny Philip Seymour Hoffman is as Lebowski's (the rich one) assistant.  His expressions of dismay and contempt are hysterical.  And John Goodman is a shiny fat golden god in the film - I think this might be his best performance in any movie.  In a world where David Fincher is about to get the Criterion treatment, I think it's high time for someone to do the Coen Brothers right on DVD.

Television has been a bit of a wash lately.  I finally caught up on FRINGE last night (lots o fun) as well as THE OFFICE (eh, ok).  The last night I was NJ I got around to watching the series finale of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.  It was okay, but nothing to change my mind that every since the discovery in Season 3 of the mysterious Final Five, the overall show quality dipped with only periodic peeks above the surface.  Seasons 1 and 2 were brilliant, and I'll probably watch those again as a self-contained unit. HEROES has been a real issue - I haven't caught a single episode since the Bryan Fuller-scripted one five or six weeks ago.  I think I'll try to catch up with everything this week, but I feel reasonably sure this is my farewell to that show. 

And now it's 1:45 PM.  I'm working remotely and listening to the new deluxe edition of Sinead O'Connor's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got.  The Missus just put the Boy down for his nap, and I'm grabbing some iced tea to battle the 80+ weather up here in the office.  Tonight is hopefully some more FREAKS AND GEEKS on DVD, some serious dinner out on the back porch, and a little of the "we're married and tired parents" romance that's been the order of the day for the past two years.

Book #11: Little Brother

If the rampant security and surveillance that permeates every facet of young Marcus Yallow's life in Cory Doctorow's excellent Little Brother, then it's been a while since you've been in the inside of a city school. Metal detectors, cameras in the hallways...for many kids this is the norm rather than the exception when it comes to their education experience.

There are a lot of things I can point out as exceptional in Doctorow's thrilling Young Adult tale, about a group of kids who rail against the system after being unlawfully detained by the Department of Homeland Security after a bomb explodes in San Francisco, but the key piece that everything else rests on is how he gives voice to his protagonists. I think it's hard to write in the voice of a child, but it's 10 times harder to write in the voice of a modern teenager, and Doctorow pulls off the trick of giving Marcus and his friends a palpable, authentic voice that doesn't ring like it was written by some old guy. Everything hinges on Marcus's response the to terror he finds himself in, and the first half of the novel, where Marcus is detained and tortured by his captors, is terrifying. Marcus isn't your typical "tough guy" hero cliche - he's a smart but very normal 17 year-old kid, and his response to what happens to him is horrible (in a fantastic way) in its realistic portrayal, and I'll admit to having to put the book down for a bit before continuing.

When I picked Little Brother back up a few days later, the next 300+ pages were devoured in one sitting. Having established a high level of trust with Marcus and specifically with his ability to bring me along on Marcus's journey, Doctorow then proceeds to craft a thrilling race against the powers that be, as Marcus attempts to strike back against a system that has deprived him of his freedoms, his civil liberties, and his own nature. Little Brother is unapologetic both in its politics and in its techno-speak: part of the charm of the book lies in Doctorow's comfort and ability to explain and expand upon a lot of the technology (all real, apparently) that lies at the heart of the book. However, Little Brother never sacrifices either genuine emotion or skill in its execution.

An absolute treasure of a book. As an adult I loved every page of it, but if I had a wish it would be that I could give this book to my 16 year-old self - it would have been a life-changing event for him.

Mahwah, NJ

That's where I'll be for the next few days, meeting up with the domestic headquarters for Jaguar and Land Rover for work.  It's only about 50 miles away, but I'll be staying in a hotel instead making the commute over the bridge each day.

Not the most exotic place I've ever been to (that would be Newark), but for a business trip that involves almost no effort on my part except for some mediation, it'll be a nice change of pace.  I've already packed the book I'm reading, the first trade of Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan, a couple flicks, and a hard copy of the novel so I can start picking up where I left off (about 35,000 words).

Back with some pics and commentary when I can.

The Reviewer's Lament

I finally posted my article about my love/hate relationship with reviewers copies over at Un:Bound. The subtitle of the post (had I written one) would read:

"The one where Chris bitches about how he has to put his reviewer copies in front of all the other books he actually wants to read, except that now he got some great kick-ass books from Tor and has to back-track, kind of"

That's a little long, so instead I went with The Reviewer's Lament (and the Beauty of Tor):

One of the perks of writing for Un:Bound (besides of course the fame, booze, and ability to influence the weather) is that you do, occasionally, get sent free books.

This is a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand they're, you know...free. Gratis. One day you arrive home to find your mailbox stuffed with a big manila envelop snuggling an advance reviewers copy or a recent release. Inside it's so warm and inviting...someone out there likes you! You pour yourself an ice-cold beer, grab some crackers and cheese, and have yourself a good curl on the couch.

Which is all very well and good, except now you're sort of obligated to actually read the book, not to mention write it up, and sooner rather than later. Which means that awesome new Vernor Vinge you just picked up, or that second book of William T. Vollmann's Seven Dreams saga (Fathers and Crows, if you were wondering) you were finally ready to dive into? It's gonna have to wait, at least if you want to maintain any kind of relationship with the company so you can receive even more free stuff in the future.

You can read the rest over at Un:Bound.  Check us out!